I have never played a MMORPG before, but as a fan of the Warcraft games and a devoted Blizzard zombie this one has me intrigued. I'm guessing it'll either be a blowaway hit that changes the face of online RPGs forever or a forgetful Everquest clone that gets swallowed up by the Final Fantasy XI and City of Heroes hype. Similar sentiments, anyone?

Also, I've looked everywhere but can't find a release date other than "2004". I know they just issued the beta testing, but I'm not video game industry savy as to how long after that the final version comes out.

Normally I think its something like six months after beta testing the game usually comes out, but Blizzard being Blizzard, they won't release the game until its done. Still, its early enough in 2004 that there's no reason to think the game won't be on shelves in time for the holiday season.

The game itself doesn't sound like anything that will revolutionize the MMORPG (if anything, the mechanices sound more like Diablo 2, what with the '!'s over NPC's heads to signify a quest), but the game itself should be solid when it comes out. I don't expect any SWG type problems at its release. Blizzard's usually good about that kind of stuff.

I'm just disappointed I didn't get selected for the beta...

Yeah, angles in the ring... someone thought of that a long time ago. They called it pro wrestling." -- the MCS

I'm pretty interrested for it, too. In fact, it's the only game I'm looking forward to (not that I normally look forward to a game, but...). I'll probably wait 'til a month or two after the game is released to buy it; by then all the initial problems should be ironed-out.

Originally posted by ScreamingHeadGuy I'll probably wait 'til a month or two after the game is released to buy it; by then all the initial problems should be ironed-out.

Actually, that's another thing I wanted to ask. Since I have never played a MMORPG, when is a good time to actually buy the game and get into it? I heard when Galaxies came out it completely sucked and it took LucasArts months to iron out all the stupid shit and annoying problems. Is it best to wait a while before purchase? If I do, will I fall behind in quests and character building type stuff?

Originally posted by ScreamingHeadGuyIs it best to wait a while before purchase? If I do, will I fall behind in quests and character building type stuff?

While I've always personally liked being at the front-end of an MMORPG (which really I've only ever done in Everquest), it might be to your advantage to wait. It depends on your philosophy. What intrigued me the most about the MMORPG genre was 'being the first'. I liked trying to be the highest level among my class and trying to find new things that no one had found, and do new things before others could do them. In Everquest, when a new server opened, I'd always be tempted to jump over there to begin the race anew, and sometimes I actually would. In order to do this, though, especially at the release of a game, you have to be prepared for bugs. However prepared Blizzard is, there will be bugs. If you go in knowing that, and try not to get too frustrated, you'll have some fun. If you're the kind of person who'll go on a messageboard and post angry messages with titles like "I'm paying money to beta test this piece of garbage!", then you might want to wait it out until it becomes more stable.

Granted we're still in the early hype stages, but I've the comments I've read about the game have been that its already as polished as some games are when released, and its only in beta. Blizzard has a rep for releasing relatively solid games, and while I'm sure it won't be 100% bug free, I can't see them releasing this game in even a semi-broken state, only for it to suck for a few months. Unless the hype changes around release time, I see no reason not to get this game when it comes out (or shortly thereafter) if you're interested.

Yeah, angles in the ring... someone thought of that a long time ago. They called it pro wrestling." -- the MCS

The rule of thumb with massively multiplayer online games of ANY stripe, RPG or otherwise, is they are nowhere near finished when they're released. Horror stories like Anarchy Online/WW2 Online aside, even the best of launches is still heavily unbalanced and is pretty much guaranteed to need massive patching to be what the box promises, because it's impossible to test one of these games on the kind of scale they'll be played on. That's why most players refer to the first six months or so as the time when you pay to be a beta tester... that's what you're doing, essentially.

There's no harm in waiting. After a few months have passed, the game will be a truckload more stable, better balanced, and might even be cheaper to purchase.

World of Warcraft (High Expectations, being a WC fan) vs.Everquest II (Never played Everquest, dont know what to expect) vs.City of Heroes (Looks good, closed betas going on now)

City of Heroes is getting the marketing of GOD behind it. I've seen two stand up adds for it at two different stores (it's still in Beta testing phase?), and huge stacks of Pre-Order boxes. Maybe that's just Arizona.

Everquest is gonna be billed on it's original success and appeal, so you can expect original fans to jump on the bandwagon anyway.

WOW has kind of an uphill battle going on. It's gonna rest on whether or not an RTS game's huge fanbase can translate over to the MMORPG realm.

Originally posted by VenomWOW has kind of an uphill battle going on. It's gonna rest on whether or not an RTS game's huge fanbase can translate over to the MMORPG realm.

Not necessarily. I myself am not an RTS fan (and therefore not a Warcraft fan, though I've played the early stages of Warcraft II -- that's how I know I'm not an RTS fan), but I'm interested in WoW. I like Diablo, and the mechanics of this game sound like the logical extension of taking the instances of each Battlenet D2 game and expanding them into a full blown persistant world. Unless I'm an anomaly, I can see lots of Blizzard fans excited about this, moreso than just people who are Warcraft fans.

Yeah, angles in the ring... someone thought of that a long time ago. They called it pro wrestling." -- the MCS